CIRCULAR LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, 27 December 1906, Page 10

CIRCULAR LETTER

BY THE BISHOP OP AUCKLAND

Bishop's House, . Pousonby, Auckland, December 17, 1906.

Rev. Father and his parishioners,Every happiness and joy] attend you all at Christmas and ' during the new year. While, our prayers at

this holy time must be for peace on earth, to men of

good will, ' our thoughts will carry us to Rome, and remind us of the sorrows, of our Holy - Father occasioned by v the trials of the Church in" France. -The newspapers give us such scant information, an-d the editors readily uphold any story against the Church. While sounding the praises of the authors^ of this persecution, they give honor to those "men- who have "declared that their determination is" to try and" dechristianise their country^ and who, under the • mask of Equality and Liberty, are striving to stifle .the consciences of their people. That they. may succeed for a time is not unlikely, but that they will root "out the Faith is "as impossible as in days of old, -when the barque of Peter was - seen to be tossed in- the

midst of the most tempestuous waves, and when' to appearance it was in danger of shipwreck. Jesus ■ Christ is- the Helmsman who will guide her in -all -Her ways and bring her safely out- of danger. Asib has been in the past so it will be in the future, for ' O Holy Roman Church, City of our strength, behold us thy children . assembled in spirit within thy walls, around the tomb .of the -Fisherman, Prince of the Apostles, whose .sacred, relics ' protect thee from their earthly shrine,'- and whose unchanging teaching enlightens thee from heaven. Yet, O City ot Strength, it is by the Saviour, - Who is coming, that thou art strong. He is thy wall, ip'r it is He that encircles, with his tender mercy, all thy children ; He is thy bulwark, for ifc is by .Him that thou art invincible, and all the powers of hell are powerless to prevail against thee. Open wide thy gates, that all nations may enter thee ; for thou art mistress of holiness and the guardian of truth. May the old error, which sets itself against the faith," soon disappear, and peace reign over the whole fold: O Holy Roman Church, thou hast forever put thy trust in the Lord ; and He faithful to His promise, has humbled before thee the haughty ones that defied thee, and the proud cities that were against thee. Where are now the Caesars, - who boasted that they had drowned thee in thine own |, blood ? Where the Emperors, who would ravish tihe-in- . violate virginity of thy faith ? Where the "Heretics, who, during the -past .centuries of 'thine existence have assailed every article of thy teaching, and denied what they listed? -Where: the ungrateful Princes, who would fain, make- a slave of thee, who had made them what they were ? K Where that Empire of Mahctmet, which ,has so many times raged against thee. for that thou the defenceless State, didst arrest the pride of its conquests ? Where the Reformers, who were bent on giving the world a Christianity, in which thou wast to have no part? -Where the modern .Sophists, in whose philosophy thou wast set down as a system that had been tried, and was a failure, and is now a ruin ? And those Rings who are acting the tyrant over thee" and those people that liberty independently and , at the risk of truth-where will they be in ' another- hundred years ? Gone aiid forgotten as the noisy anger of a torrent ; while thou, O holy Church ol Kome, built- on the immovable rock, wilt be as calm

as young,, as unwrinkled as .ever. Thy path through the ages of this world's duration will be right as tliat of "the just man ;' thpii wilt ever lie" the self-same unchanging- Church, as thou hast; been during nearly nineteen hundred years past; whilst everything else, umter the-, sun has been but change. Whence this" thy stability, but from Him Who is very Truth and Justice ? Glory lie to Him in thee. Each year, He visits thee; each year, He brings /thee "new gifts, wherewith tliou mayest go happily through thy pilgrimage ; and to the end of time : He will .visit thee, and renew thee, not only with the* power of -that, look wherewith Peter was renewed, but by filling thee with- Himself, as He did the- ever glorious Virgin, who is;- ttie-objeet of -thy most tender love, after, -thai- which thou bearest to , Jesus Himself. We pray wibh -thee, • O Church, our Mot-her, -and hare- is our prayer: "Come, Lord Jesus, ' Thy name and Thy remembrance are the desire of our souls : they have desired Thee in the night, yea, " and early in the morning "have 'they watched for thee." '

' From the Octave, of the- Epiphany until further notice the Oratio Imperata will be ' Pro Papa '.—Again every kind wish to you, and yours,

Yours aEecfciouately lv. Christ, *i* GEO. M. LENIHAN, ~ , Bishop of Auckland.